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Messages - MacBernick

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46
HP Calculators / Re: How to save things ?
« on: January 08, 2014, 02:10:42 pm »
It should be possible by making an App maybe, as apps have their own variable name space and settings for each app can be stored (according to inline help).

47
HP Calculators / Re: Is 1▶a instead of a := 1 bad practice? (HP Prime)
« on: January 08, 2014, 01:56:09 pm »
I know, the last time I programmed using calculator BASIC (excluding RPL, wich was even more cryptic, but for good reasons, and now PPL) was in 94 or so, on the Casio FX8500G (the last of the first gen of graphing calc). This didn't make more sense even then, every computer BASICs already had VAR = xxx syntax for years. My guess is that it was an attempt to make a programming language for non-programmer people, which sounds like a strange idea to me.

48
HP Calculators / Re: Is 1▶a instead of a := 1 bad practice? (HP Prime)
« on: January 08, 2014, 12:40:28 pm »
I don't know if there is good or bad practice about STO or :=, only the guys who wrote the PPL compiler could answer that I guess. I tend to use := for same reasons as TomL above, because well, it is how it has always worked on computer ^^ I don't know why calculators BASICs always have so weird syntax.

49
HP Calculators / Re: How to save things ?
« on: January 08, 2014, 11:31:41 am »
Looks like non-exported globals works like exported ones. It stores values for some time but just entering and exiting program code reset them. That's not a very reliable way to store things.

EDIT : in fact you can read an modify a user var in a program, but not create one, or I didn't find how at least...

50
HP Prime / Re: 4 games for the PRIME
« on: January 08, 2014, 08:59:06 am »
Nice. I've already tried mastermind from hpcalc.org, I like it.

I see you use a lot concentric circles. I used that too in my very first PPL program. Maybe better (and faster ?) to use FILLPOLY since last update.

51
HP Calculators / Re: How to save things ?
« on: January 07, 2014, 08:15:51 am »
I wasn't aware of this 'superglobal' thing, thank you ^^ !

52
HP Calculators / How to save things ?
« on: January 06, 2014, 01:52:12 pm »
How do you store high scores, game states, or anything you want to keep safe for an arbitrary amount of time. EXPORTed variable are not reliable for this use, and I can't find a way to create an actual User Variable programmatically. Pre-defined vars are the way ? Sounds odd to me...
Thank you for any advice !

53
HP Prime / Re: [WIP] Trailblazer Prime
« on: January 03, 2014, 10:16:33 pm »
In fact I had a simple horizontal scrolling in mind for the clouds, the frame rate wouldn't survive another projected scrolling for sure ^^'
Something like 2 blits with offset from a tileable clouds texture would be far enough I guess.

What you saw in previous version was an attempt to use the big track grob to render the 3D effect, with two issues : perspective is screwed up and using actual texture looked very bad because of far distance flickering. It would make more sense now that the resolution is doubled though.

The graphics could be improved further without any performance cost by using 32x16 textures instead of 32x8. But I don't know what is the grob size limit and if the big track grob could be doubled without limiting track length too much.

You may be able to improve the speed by a large amount by switching to MAKELIST or MAKEMAT commands rather than appending elements to an existing list, etc.

I was wondering if append() was really an efficient way to create my tables. Thanks for the tip. It won't change the speed of the game but certainly make the wait period a bit shorter which is always good.

54
HP Prime / Re: [WIP] Trailblazer Prime
« on: January 03, 2014, 09:35:48 pm »
I like the new track and graphics. It looks very nice. I also like how the ball appears below the track, it looks good when falling down. Also lol it's quite hard actually. Hopefully the final version has multiple levels with different difficulties. :P

Thanks. Yes the game is hard and this track is not the easiest. I will make a couple of tracks with growing difficulty, and I have some ideas to allow to easily create and share users tracks too, without me actually making a track editor. I will also slow down the overall speed of gameplay a little bit (not too much though). Also jumps won't be infinite in final game, about 4 to 6 available per run only.

Just a few things:

-Do you ever plan to move the track at the bottom of the screen and add a sky at the top with an HUD? It might look more polished/professional that way, else people might think the game was rushed if it remains with the bottom half of the screen nearly empty.

Yes, there will be a sky background (maybe with slowly scrolling clouds if it doesn't kill frame rate), with time, speed, and jumps left on it.


-If BLIT_P(G1,  xEnds(ray, 1),  ray + 20,  xEnds(ray, 2),  ray + 24,  G4, 0, (rayTable(ray) + camPosition) / 8, 160, (rayTable(ray) + camPosition) / 8, #FF00FF) is changed to BLIT_P(G1,  xEnds(ray, 1),  ray + 20,  xEnds(ray, 2),  ray + 22,  G4, 0, (rayTable(ray) + camPosition) / 8, 160, (rayTable(ray) + camPosition) / 8, #FF00FF), it could slightly improve speed, but then you lose the 3D effect. I would show you an idea to do a 3D effect, but sadly the emulator doesn't like my code (Whitespace bug).

Hmmm that's no 3D effects, that's just me forgetting to adjust the blit parameters ^^'
Thank you for pointing out.
I don't know yet if this effect will be added in the big track grob or in a render pass.

-I get error invalid input at the end of the track.

Yep, that's because tracks have no end yet, and this one is too short to trigger the loop point, which I didn't bother to modify because it will be kicked out soon.

55
HP Prime / Re: Spaceinvader game
« on: January 03, 2014, 07:54:21 pm »
Nice, the aliens are so cute ^^

But why is this so slow ?
I don't get how you're doing collisions detection. Are you sure it's optimal ?

56
HP Prime / Re: [WIP] Trailblazer Prime
« on: January 03, 2014, 07:44:58 pm »
New update :)

Yes I think I'd like some cool transitions like the ones you do.

57
The Axe Parser Project / Re: Axe Parser on 84+CSE ?
« on: December 30, 2013, 09:07:02 pm »
Thanks for this interesting discussion ^^

Should I have bought a 84+SE instead of CSE ? The more forum I read, the more this CSE sounds like a CPC+ syndrom (a last attempt before giving up).

Even though the arch of the calculator is very different of the z80 architecture I'm used to (oh well, I used to be used to...) I'd love to program for it.

58
HP Calculators / Re: [solved] Bricked ?
« on: December 29, 2013, 12:55:35 pm »
Not really useless. Someone else may run into the same problem in the future and find this thread. It may have been possible that you couldn't fix it and did require help. In the future, I'd use a bit more descriptive title name though.

You're right, I'm not good at title ^^' Changing it now.

I was scared for a second. Glad you got it fixed (and glad you got your calc). I myself had to use v13 recovery mode to update my firmware, since other methods did not work.

I have to admit I was scared for a couple of minutes too. After waiting for it for more than a month, sending it back because of a failed update 5 minutes after unpacking could have been annoying a bit.

59
HP Calculators / [solved] Bricked because of failed firmware update ?
« on: December 29, 2013, 08:24:12 am »
I received my prime yesterday. I was happy ^^

The first thing I did is updating firmware through the connectivity kit. The calculator entered recovery mode (v13), the progress bar progressed fine, when, at about 4/5 to the end, the connectivity said "update failed", and the machine did not respond at all. I pushed the little reset button on the back, and now the machine won't turn on at all...

What am I supposed to do next, please ?  :'(

EDIT : I managed to start the recovery again ([symb] + reset) after a few try.

EDIT2 : and launching Updater.exe did the rest. Sorry for this useless thread  :angel:

60
The Axe Parser Project / Re: Axe Parser on 84+CSE ?
« on: December 27, 2013, 09:35:16 pm »
Oh I see, sorry about that ^^

I need to set me up an asm toolchain then. Thanks.

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